Information about task progress modulates cognitive demand avoidance

People tend to avoid engaging in cognitively demanding tasks unless it is ‘worth our while’—that is, if the benefits outweigh the costs of effortful action. Yet, we seemingly partake in a variety of effortful mental activities (e.g. playing chess, completing Sudoku puzzles) because they impart a sense of progress. Here, we examine the possibility that information about progress—specifically, the number of trials completed of a demanding cognitive control task, relative to the total number of trials to be completed—reduces individuals’ aversion to cognitively effort activity, across four experiments. In Experiment 1, we provide an initial demonstration that presenting progress information reduces individuals’ avoidance of cognitively demanding activity avoidance using a variant of the well-characterized Demand Selection Task (DST). The subsequent experiments buttress this finding using a more sophisticated within-subjects versions of the DST, independently manipulating progress information and demand level to further demonstrate that, 1) people prefer receiving information about temporal progress in a task, and 2) all else being equal, individuals will choose to exert greater levels of cognitive effort when it confers information about their progress in a task. Together, these results suggest that progress information can motivate cognitive effort expenditure and, in some cases, override individuals’ default bias towards demand avoidance.

Futurity as an Effect of Playing Horizon: Zero Dawn (2017)

Futurity denotes the quality or state of being in the future. This article explores futurity as an effect of response, as an aesthetic experience of playing a narrative video game. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the ways in which video games are engaged in ecocriticism as an aspect of cultural work invested in the future. In the presented reading of the 2017 video game Horizon: Zero Dawn, it is argued that the combination of the affect creating process of play, in combination with a posthumanist and postnatural plot, creates an experience of futurity, which challenges generic notions of linear temporal progress and of the conventional telos of dystopian fiction in a digital medium. The experience of the narrative video game Horizon Zero Dawn is presented as an example of an aesthetic experience that affords futurity as an effect of playing, interlinked with a reflection on the shape of the future in a posthumanist narrative.

Spectral and thermal responses of peanut to infection and colonization with Athelia rolfsii

Soilborne fungal diseases, including southern stem rot (SSR, causal agent Athelia rolfsii), are major constraints to peanut production worldwide. Scouting for disease via visual observation is time and labor-intensive, but sensor technologies are a promising tool for plant disease detection. Prior research has focused on foliar diseases, and few studies have applied sensor-based tools for early detection of soilborne diseases. This study characterized the temporal progress of spectral and thermal responses of peanut plants during infection and colonization with A. rolfsii under controlled environment. In greenhouse experiments, A. rolfsii-inoculated and mock-inoculated lateral stems of peanut were inspected daily for symptoms, and leaf spectral reflectance and temperature were measured using a handheld spectrometer and thermal camera, respectively. Following onset of visual disease symptoms, leaflets on inoculated stems had greater spectral reflectance in the visible region compared to those on mock-inoculated stems. Leaflets on the inoculated stems also had greater normalized leaf temperatures as compared to leaflets on mock-inoculated stems. Overall, results indicate that signatures of disease development can be detected during peanut infection and colonization with A. rolfsii using spectral reflectance and thermal imaging technologies, and spectral signatures of disease are more consistent and specific compared to thermal ones. Though only one peanut variety, one pathogen isolate, and one single measurement were assessed per evaluation date, temporal progress of spectral and thermal responses on a daily basis characterized in this study can be used to develop sensor-based methods to detect southern stem rot and other soilborne diseases ultimately in the field.

Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (CABMV) in Passiflora by qPCR analysis reveals asymptomatic plants with viruses and new species with immunity

The passion fruit woodiness disease (Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus – CABMV) causes socioeconomic problems for Brazilian passion fruit crop. Understanding the temporal progress of the disease and identifying resistance sources to CABMV are essential steps to develop resistant varieties. The objective of the study was to evaluate temporal progress of passion fruit woodiness disease, identify Passiflora genotypes with CABMV resistance and to detect virus infection in asymptomatic plants by qPCR. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse using 128 genotypes belonging to 12 species and three hybrids (inter and intraspecific) of Passiflora evaluated in five periods after inoculation. The symptoms severity was quantified from the disease index (DI%). The CABMV infection in symptomatic plants was confirmed by RT-PCR and in asymptomatic plants by qPCR. Progress rates and disease severity were lower in the species P. cincinnata, P. gibertii, P. miersii e P. mucronata compared to P. edulis, P. alata, Passiflora sp. and hybrids. Of the evaluated genotypes, 20.31% were resistant, with emphasis on the accessions of P. suberosa, P. malacophylla, P. setacea, P. pohlii e P. bahiensis that did not show symptoms of virus. The absence of symptoms does not imply immunity of plants to the virus, as the qPCR analysis confirmed infection by the virus in asymptomatic plants of P. cincinnata, P. gibertii, P. miersii, P. mucronata, P. setacea, P. malacophylla e P. suberosa. Even after four inoculations, the virus was not detected by qPCR in the upper leaves in plants of P. pohlii and P. bahiensis indicating that these species are immune to CABMV.

Chaos and hope: nano-utopian moments of activist self-organisation

Arguably, chaos and entropy are adaptive to activism and utopian theory; they trouble normative approaches to temporal progress, applying a non-linear and emergent approach to thinking about activism and possibility. [...] This initial exploratory definition of the nano-utopian describes moments that are fractions of [...] micro- utopian structures, or that may initially sit at a disconnect from them, differing mainly in the fact that they are unpredictable, unplanned or unexpected.

Temporal Progress of Candeia Rust Caused by Puccinia velata in Clonal Candeia Plantation (Eremanthus erythropappus (DC.) McLeisch)

The temporal progress of candeia rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia velata, was monitored in an experimental field at Lavras municipality, Southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. A plantation with 17 Eremanthus erythropappus clones was set at the site, and the temporal disease progress was analyzed based on visual assessments of disease severity on leaves. The disease was monitored monthly between September 2016 and August 2017. Progress curves based on disease severity were constructed and empirical models were fitted. The area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) was calculated, and the means test was applied to select clones resistant to the disease. The Pearson coefficient was used to assess correlations between disease severity and environmental variables. The model that best described disease progress over the assessment period was the Gompertz model. The mean AUDPC values were grouped into four groups of resistance levels according to the Scott–Knott test. There was a negative correlation between air temperature and disease severity. Considering that the disease occurred in all clones and that the climatic conditions of Southern Minas Gerais are favorable to the candeia rust, it is important to adopt measures for the selection of clones resistant to this disease.